Tag Archives: B-25 mitchell

Lucky Legs and her big fish, 75 Years ago

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North American B-25 Mitchell #43-3981 “Lucky Legs” of the 47th Bombardment Squadron, 41st Bombardment Group, 7th Air Force, prepares to take off from Ryuku Retto, Okinawa for a mission against Sasebo Harbor on Kyushu in the Japanese Home Islands, 28 July 1945. Lucky is carrying a Mark 13/44 GT-1 (glide torpedo), a weapon the particular plane used for the first time, in this mission.

[Source: USAF Photo via Mark Allen Collection]

While primarily a Navy-dropped weapon, the Mark 13 was used by the Army in a few instances, such as the 41st BG’s B-25s, and by B-26 Marauder units at Midway and in the Aleutian Islands, the Southwest Pacific, North Africa, and the Mediterranean, with limited success.

Mark 13 Torpedo on display in the World War II Gallery at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Notably, the fish does not have her “pickle barrel” wooden drop nose attached. (U.S. Air Force photo)

With that being said, the Mark 13 was probably the most common air-dropped anti-ship torpedo in history, with more than 17,000 made, and had the distinction of being the U.S. Navy’s final such weapon used in combat, by Skyraiders from USS Princeton against the Hwachon Dam in Korea. Notably, late-war PT-boats also used the weapon as it was lighter than their older Mark 8s. Some 13-feet long and 22.4-inches in diameter (wider than a tube-launched torp) the Mark 13 weighed about 2,200-pounds, including 600 of Torpex high explosives. Once dropped, it could make 33.5 knots to 6,300 yards.

From “U.S. Naval Weapons” by Norman Friedman via Navweaps:

“A review of war experience showed a total of 1,287 attacks [this count only includes those launched by carrier-borne aircraft, other US Navy aircraft launched another 150 torpedoes – TD], of which 40 percent (514) resulted in hits, including 50 percent hits on battleships and carriers (322 attacks, including Midway), 31 percent on destroyers (179 attacks), and 41 percent (out of 445 attacks) on merchant ships.”

More info on the Mark 13, below:

For the record, the 47th BS inactivated 27 January 1946 at Manila and has remained that way while the parent 41st BG endured into the Cold War as an F-4 unit, the 41st TG, until it was inactivated in 1970 at Incirlik. Ironically, the F-4, a tactical fighter, could carry more ordinance than the B-25 of WWII fame.

Doolittle redux

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With the focus in the past week or so on the retired super-carrier USS Ranger (CV-61) and the Doolittle Raiders, I figured this was a neat tie-in.

The restored World War II B-25 Mitchell bomber aircraft "Heavenly Body" takes off from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS RANGER (CV-61) in 1992. It and another B-25 are being launched in a re-enactment of "Doolittle's Raid" of April 18, 1942, during which 16 B-25's were launched from the aircraft carrier USS HORNET (CV-8) in the first attack on the Japanese mainland. PHCM TERRY MITCHELL - ID:DN-ST-92-09801. (click to big up)

The restored World War II B-25 Mitchell bomber aircraft “Heavenly Body” takes off from the deck of the aircraft carrier USS RANGER (CV-61) in 1992. It and another B-25 are being launched in a re-enactment of “Doolittle’s Raid” of April 18, 1942, during which 16 B-25’s were launched from the aircraft carrier USS HORNET (CV-8) in the first attack on the Japanese mainland. PHCM TERRY MITCHELL – ID:DN-ST-92-09801. (click to big up)

Restored B-25 "In the Mood" lifting off of Ranger, same day, same occasion.

Restored B-25 “In the Mood” lifting off of Ranger, same day, same occasion.

Of course, these planes had in some cases a take off run more than double that of the raiders who took off from the Hornet in 1942, but hey, they still flew B-25 bombers off a flat-top. And when you add to the fact that the Mitchells were pushing 50 years of age…not bad.

The strange case of the flying Grizzly and its 75mm gun

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With the lead up to the invasion of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany in World War II, the U.S. Army needed some serious air support on tap. While there were a number of capable aircraft on hand, such as the P-47 Thunderbolt and the P-51 Mustang, each with a half dozen .50 caliber M2 heavy machine guns, the Army wanted something…bigger. What they got was an aircraft named the Grizzly and this flying bear was, quite literally, a cannon with wings.

Since the airplane took to the sky in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the U.S. Army had a leg up in flying war machines. It was an Army Captain, Charles de Forest Chandler, who took the first machine gun up on an experimental craft and used it effectively to hit targets on the ground. By WWI, the first .30 caliber belt and drum fed light machine guns went airborne. By 1939, the Germans were flying with 13mm and 20mm cannon, while some U.S. planes (the P-39) carried cannons as large as 39mm.

In 1943, the U.S. Army Air Force in the Pacific took a few B-25 Mitchell bombers and installed a single-shot T9E1 75mm cannon, the same gun used on the Sherman tank, in the front of the bomber, firing through the nose.

The large tube at the front of this B-25 that looks like a sewer drainpipe? Yeah, that's a cannon.

The large tube at the front of this B-25 that looks like a sewer drainpipe? Yeah, that’s a cannon.

These huge flying artillery pieces could vaporize enemy planes (it happened at least once) as well as sink Japanese ships with just a few well-placed shots. Of course, the plane lost 40mph airspeed every time it fired, but hey, it was spitting out a 3-inch wide artillery shell.

The B-25G/H models had to have an airman upfront hand-loading the 75mm cannon, which was not very efficient.

The B-25G/H models had to have an airman upfront hand-loading the 75mm cannon, which was not very efficient.

These ‘cannon-nosed’ B-25s proved so popular and successful that a special model of the 75mm gun, the T13E1 / M5 , made lighter and especially for use in an aircraft, was produced for the B-25H series bombers. Nevertheless, they still suffered from the fact that they were single-shot weapons, which had to be reloaded, by hand, by an airman heaving shells back and forth through the nose of the cramped bomber. Which was a bear of a problem that led to the Grizzly, and its mother-beautiful semi-automatic M10 75mm gun

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Read the rest in my column at Firearms Talk